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Child Labor Opinion Survey - Conclusions
If you live in the United States, you can find that, in many cases, much of the news and information you hear are also from American sources. The rest of the world may not have the same views and perspectives as the Americans writing the material. Because of this, our survey was offered to people in the United States and in another country, Bangladesh. This gives two sides to the survey, one from the United States, where people are more likely to be shocked by child labor and very much against it, and the other from Bangladesh, were child labor may be viewed as a tragedy, but also as a fact of life, largely because there is much more exploitative child labor in third-world Bangladesh than in America. Back to Top Do You Know any Child Laborers? Because of the different views on child labor in these two countries, the overall results of each set of surveys were somewhat different. This difference can most clearly be seen in question 6. Question 6 asked the survey participants if they employed OR knew someone who employed child laborers. In the American surveys, the answer was overwhelmingly "No," only 14% of the 60 American participants employed or knew someone who employed a child laborer. In the Bangladesh surveys, the results were vastly different. Eighty-one percent of the participants answered "Yes" to the question. This shows that in Bangladesh, child labor occurs in much greater numbers and is much more public. Moreover, many people in Bangladesh do not think child labor is a bad thing. Some Bengalis hire child house servants, who work and live with them, and do not attend formal schools (see Banna’s story, for example). For these children, however, there is almost no other alternative. Many of them come from families who cannot afford to feed or clothe them, and can certainly not pay for their education. They are forced to let their children work in order to support their family. In cases like this it is important to look at the situation carefully before reaching a conclusion of "good" child labor and "bad" child labor. Is child labor still a bad choice if the child will starve on the streets otherwise? Back to Top Child Labor Common in Bangladesh While some people in Bangladesh view as acceptable some forms of child labor that we might consider "bad," the question 6 survey results show that child labor is really just a reality, a fact of life that people in Bangladesh face. While someone in the U.S. might be outraged to see a small child out of school and working instead, a Bangladesh might view the same situation with nothing but a little sadness - for him, the sight is commonplace. This non-reaction does not mean that the observer supports "bad" or questionable child labor. It just means that he knows that it happens, and knows that there isn’t much he can do for that child. This type of situation occurs all the time in Bangladesh. In one survey comment, a Bangladeshi child wrote: "Child labor in countries like Bangladesh, etc., cannot be stopped. This is due to the lack of financial aid, the child’s parents don’t even have the capabilities to buy food and clothing, or give primary education to their child. There will be child labor, otherwise, how are they going to survive?" In another survey comment, a Bangladeshi adult wrote: "Though I do not like child labor, it is a must in 3rd world countries. The parents cannot afford food and clothing for their children. We should help them and should be kind and treat them well." These comments and other comments show that, though many Bangladeshis view "bad" child labor as bad, they also see it as a necessity for the child’s survival. Back to Top Different Responses to a Single Scenario This developed tolerance to child labor, even "bad" child labor, can be seen again in the survey responses to Scenario 1, or question 2. In this question, participants were asked to rate how "acceptable" the following situation was for the child, Kumar, on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the most acceptable and 1 being the least acceptable: Kumar, who is 10 years old, works as a domestic servant for a family in Bangladesh. He works because his parents cannot afford to feed or clothe him. His employer gives him food, clothes, and payment for his services, though the payment goes to his parents. Kumar lives with his employers. Though he does not go to school, his employer spends time to educate him, and he gets some free time. His employer is fair with him and does not abuse him. In America, 52% of seventh graders who took the survey (all the seventh graders attended the same school in southern Ohio, see the Methodology section for details) gave this scenario a "4," while the other 48% of the responses were divided among other ratings somewhat evenly. Compare this to the results from Bangladeshi kids. Fifty percent of these children chose "5," the most acceptable rating. This again shows that Bangladeshis are more attuned to questionable child labor than Americans. Back to Top Different Views on the Possibility of Ending Exploitative Child Labor Another interesting difference between the two countries’ survey results appeared in questions 5 and 5.1. Question 5 asked if participants thought that exploitative child labor was a problem in the world today. Forty-eight percent of Americans said "Yes," while 40% said "Don’t Know/No Opinion." In Bangladesh, 82% of participants said "Yes" to the same question - a 34% difference. But then look at question 5.1. If the participant answered "Yes" to question 5, then question 5.1 asked the person if he or she thought child labor was a problem that could be solved. In the United States, 73% of respondents thought it could be solved. In Bangladesh, only 50% did - again, a large 23% difference. This may mean that Bangladeshis have less hope that exploitative child labor will go away than Americans. And after some thought, this does not seem too surprising. Bangladeshis who grow up with child labor all around them are probably more doubtful that it can disappear than Americans. Back to Top Averages in the Scenario Questions Our ThinkQuest team calculated averages and looked for patterns in the survey results. The averages found in the survey apply only to questions where users’ answers are numbers 1-5. These types of questions appeared in two sections, the scenario section and the rating opinions section. In the scenario section, the survey asked respondents to rate the "acceptability" of three scenarios, with a rating of 1 being the least acceptable and a rating of 5 being the most acceptable. The first scenario described a boy named Kumar (view this scenario). For this scenario, the average result for all respondents was 3.79. This scenario was meant to be a scenario that made it hard to define right or wrong, and this average shows that this was the case, because an average of 3 would have shown perfect neutrality. The average shows that although respondents overall were undecided whether the scenario was "right" or "wrong," they tended to lean more towards the "right" side. The second scenario was meant to be an example of one of the worst kinds of child labor (view scenario), and the average result was 1.25, showing respondents agreed with us. The third scenario (view scenario) was a complete opposite of the second, and described a child working short hours in a safe environment, and making money. The average response was 4.69, indicating nearly total acceptability. Back to Top Averages in the "Rate the Opinion" Questions The second section in which respondents were asked to rate items was the last section, where respondents were asked to rate opinions about child labor based on how much they agreed or disagreed with them (in this section, 1 represented total agreement and 5 represented total disagreement). For this section, we received the following average results:
Back to Top Common Response Patterns Our ThinkQuest team also looked at some common patterns in the scenario questions, questions 2-4. In some cases, a large percentage of respondents all answered these questions in the same way. One predominant pattern was 4-1-5. Many participants chose "4" for their response to question 2, "1" to question 3, and "5" to question 4. This pattern was especially evident in the American survey results, where 37% of all respondents answered with this pattern. In the Bangladesh results, this pattern was almost non-existent: only 14% of respondents answered 4-1-5. In the Bangladesh surveys, however, another pattern emerged. Thirty percent of Bangladeshi kids chose 5-1-5 for the same questions as above. In America, kids chose this pattern only 18% of the time. This pattern may be evident in the Bangladesh survey results because of the peoples’ tolerance of child labor. This might lead them to say that some forms of child labor are more acceptable than Americans might believe. Back to Top |
 
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